


It Wasn't You

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Assumptions, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Skrull(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 09:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19270459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: A month and a half ago, Rhodey was kidnapped and replaced with a Skrull without anyone noticing. In that time, he and Tony got together. Now though, they know he's a Skrull, and Tony tries to figure out how to live with what's happened.





	It Wasn't You

****Tony was making out with James-- !!!-- when the call to assemble came. He pulled away with an unhappy groan, turning off the alarm but not getting off his lap quite yet. Rhodey kissed at his neck, and Tony's eyelids fluttered shut. "James," he said, clutching at his shoulders, "I've got to go, Cap's calling. Something evil and probably big is attacking the city again."

"Skip it."

Tony laughed, ignoring that Rhodey was trying to put a hand on his hip like he meant to keep him there. "Wish I could carebear." He climbed off his lap and gave him a quick kiss before jogging off to suit up. Because he was gone from the room, he didn't see the way that Rhodey was obviously angry at him leaving, and not in a 'we got interrupted and that sucks' way.

He got in the suit, asked Jarvis to tell him the situation, then frowned. Jarvis was telling him that there was no fight, but he needed to go to the Avenger's Compound upstate. "Why?"

"It has been requested that I not divulge the nature of the meeting. Security risk. It has also been requested that you not make any communications until after the meeting has ended."

"Who told you this?"

"Captain Rogers and Colonel Danvers."

"Both of them?" he asked, becoming more confused by the second. It's not like the two of them never got along or anything, but for the most part neither of them agreed on keeping Tony out of the loop at the same time.

"Yes sir."

"If this is an intervention, I'm leaving." He flew out of the building and started making his way to the Compound.

"As you have been sober for over a year sir, that option seems unlikely."

"You never know," Tony muttered.

It was a short flight, and he clanked into the meeting room suspiciously. "Tony," Carol said, getting to her feet. "Are you okay?"

"Uh yeah? Why wouldn't I be? Even the doctors are agreeing that I'm in great health these days, and unless I have a massive case of amnesia, we don't have any world-threatening events to be stressed over." The group exchanged looks. "What? What's happened? And if something's happened why aren't any of you suited up? I know you like planning, but this doesn't seem like the time for it if there's an immediate threat."

"Tony. Please sit down." Steve used words that made it seem like he was suggesting, but his tone made it clear that it was an order.

Tony narrowed his eyes and thought about remaining standing just to spite him, but a glance around the room convinced him that was a bad enough idea that he didn't want to risk it today. Everyone seemed on edge, and him and Cap arguing would only add to it. So Tony sighed and grabbed a chair, sitting down carefully. The chair wouldn't break, but it was annoying when he missed the edge because he thought it was bigger than it was. He reached up and took the helmet off, setting it on the table in front of him. "Alright mystery gang, what's up?"

Carol took a deep breath. "Have you ever heard of Skrulls?"

* * *

Rhodey was a Skrull. That's what they told him, and that's why they were all so nervous when he came into the room. Tony felt like his heart was cracking in two in his chest, but he just looked at Captain Marvel and asked if she knew where the real one was; she did. "And we're sitting here because...?"

"The ship will be in place in ten hours." Carol sat down and Steve stood up, taking over. "When it reaches this point," he said, pulling up a new projection, "it'll be in range for us to access it. The Fantastic Four have agreed to lend us one of their ships, and in return we give them all the information we gather on the mission."

Tony paid attention, and for once he didn't offer any snide comments about the plan. Everyone understood-- or at least they thought did. Tony and Rhodey had been together for decades, of course Tony was upset about anything happening to him! Except that wasn't the case. A month ago, James had come up to him and confessed that he'd be in love with Tony for years. Tony had blinked, then thrown his arms around James and kissed him for all he was worth.

Rhodey had been replaced with a skrull a month and a half ago.

Tony thought that he'd finally found his happy ending, that he'd gotten the love of his life, and that everything was perfect because for once he wasn't having to hide behind pet names and claim they were only friends. When the meeting let out, Tony went to the bathroom. He thought about how he'd taken some damn alien into his bed and let it fuck him a dozen different times because he thought it was his best friend. And he got sick, vomiting in the toilet until nothing more was coming up, then a little bit longer.

Fortunately, nobody came looking for him so he didn't have to think up an excuse-- because like _hell_ was he admitting what had happened.

* * *

Rhodey hadn't been hurt by the Skrulls when he was captive, thank any and all gods that existed. They'd put him in stasis, so as far as he was concerned, it was only a few minutes after he was taken that the Avengers showed up and rescued him.

Tony hugged him so tightly it felt like his arms were going to fall off, but the usual rambling was noticeably absent.

* * *

Rhodey got rescued a week ago. He was released from medical four days ago, and up until this moment, he'd been giving Tony the space he'd made it obvious he wanted. Four days was more than enough time, and he was done waiting. He walked down to the workshop and knocked on the door, only for Jarvis to talk to him instead of the door opening.

"I'm sorry Colonel, but sir has instructed that you are only allowed in the workshop in case of an emergency."

James's heart skipped a beat. "What?"

"I'm sorry Colonel," Jarvis repeated, truly sounding apologetic. "I've tried to talk him out of it, but he's ignored all of my attempts."

He took a deep breath, trying to remain cool headed. "Can you open an audio feed for me?"

"Of course." He made a little beep so that James knew when to start.

"Hey Tones, Jarvis is saying you locked me out of the 'shop. I'm... confused, but I guess if that's what you want, it's okay. Well it's not okay, I think it's stupid and that you should just talk to me, but apparently whatever you did while I was gone was so stupid that you don't want to face me because you know I'll kick your ass for it. Just- I wish you wouldn't cut yourself off like this. I know you say that your bots are your family, but you're human and you need social interaction to survive."

There was a click, a hiss, and the workshop door cracked open for him. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind him. Tony looked like a fucking wreck. He was pale and drawn like he was sick, but there were health protocols to keep this from happening, so it couldn't be that he was ill. It looked like he hadn't showered in a week either, and there were cuts and bruises on his arms from where his shaking hands hadn't been able to keep the proper grip. Tony didn't even look up or glance at him.

"Did anyone tell you that there was a Skrull impersonating you?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. Did he do som-"

"Did anyone tell you what he did while he was here?"

Rhodey shook his head, then remembered that Tony wasn't looking at him. "Not specifics, no. Bucky said that he was acting just like me so that no one would be suspicious."

Tony laughed then, but it was a harsh, ugly sound. "He wasn't acting like you."

"Tony," James said slowly, his stomach a sinking pit in his torso, "did he hurt you?"

"No." His voice was tight like he might cry, but James was used to Tony lying to him. "He was great. Always nice and gentle and kissed me like I meant something."

"Kissed?" James repeated, feeling like his insides had frozen solid.

Tony's shoulders leaned forward around his body, making it look like he was trying to fold in on himself to disappear from sight. "We also did other stuff," he admitted quietly.

It felt like an eternity that he was standing there staring at the back of Tony's head. He ran a shaking hand over his mouth and took a step back, towards the door. "Right," he managed to choke out. "I'll just-" he tripped over his shoe "-not bother you. You- you look busy." Liar. But it was easier to say that Tony looked busy than to say that yes, he understood why Tony wouldn't even want to look at his face right now.

* * *

After that, Rhodey communicated with Tony via text and email. The guilty part of him wanted to leave, but he knew that that was stupid and Tony would only be more upset with him if he took off like that. He would've asked if Tony _wanted_ him to go, but he didn't trust that Tony would give him an honest answer unless they were face to face-- and even then, he wasn't sure.

Considering that he couldn't be in the same room as his best friend that owned the tower where he was living, things were going surprisingly well. Excepting the situation with Tony, his biggest problem was that he couldn't find some of his clothes. A few pairs of underwear were missing, one pair of pants, and several shirts, all of them were just... gone. He was pretty sure there were a couple hoodies missing as well, but he was less sure about that.

He'd scoured his room from top to bottom and found nothing, so his next stop was the laundry room. It was on his way there that he ran into Tony, both of them freezing when they saw the other. Rhodey opened his mouth to say something-- though he didn't have a clue what-- then he stopped, frowning. "Is that my sweatshirt?"

Tony's hands automatically went to hug his stomach. "Uh. No?"

"It says airforce on it."

"Maybe I took it from Carol."

"Carol wears a size smaller than that."

"God why don't you marry her," Tony said, rolling his eyes.

"I think her wife would mind if I did that."

"Yeah plus Carol could kind of kick your ass. Best to leave well enough alone."

"So you can keep the sweatshirt if you want, but do you know where my other clothes are? I'm missing, like, a lot of them."

Tony pulled at the sweatshirt uncomfortably. "Uh, yeah they're probably in my room."

"Why would they be in your--" Rhodey stopped. "Right. Do you mind if I grab them?"

"Sure, I was just about to head up. Pretty sure I left the prototype tablet up there somewhere."

That was unexpected, but James was willing to roll with it. It was a silent walk up, which was strange enough, but Tony started talking in a meek tone that was entirely unlike him when they got up to the room. "I should have given these back before you had time to notice they were gone, sorry." He went around the room gathering Rhodey's things. "You can keep avoiding me if you want, but you can stop if you were doing it for my benefit. I- yeah I guess I needed some time to get over it, but I'm fine now."

"Really? You're fine?"

Tony nodded.

"You don't look fine."

"I am, see?" Tony gave him an award-winning smile that was at least sixty percent fake.

"Tones, c'mon. Do you want me to move out?"

He startled. "What? No! Why the fuck would you think that? I don't want you to move out, that's stupid. Did someone tell you that that's what I want? Cause it isn't. Tell me who said that and I will kick their ass."

"No one said that, but seriously, what's going on with you?" James sighed, sitting on Tony's bed heavily. "I get," he said slowly, "that you and the Skrull version of me were in a relationship. When it turned out to not be me, that means he took advantage of you. Tony I have no idea what's going on between us right now. I thought you didn't want to see me, but now you're saying that you want me around no matter what."

Tony had dropped all of Rhodey's missing clothes in a pile on the bed. Now he had his tablet in his hand and was staring at the blank screen while he tried to think of a way out of this conversation. His only solution was to run out of the room entirely, but that wasn't really a solution. It was more like fleeing to avoid having to talk about it. Which, if he chose to do that, would be _exactly_ what it was, but he didn't want it to _look_ like that's what he was doing. Eventually he held the tablet in one hand, resting at his side and looked right at James. He was looking at him, concerned and patient. "Doesn't it bother you that I thought I was dating you?"

Rhodey blinked. "Uh, I didn't really think about it. Why would it bother me?"

"Because I was _dating_ you. That fucking Skrull version of you told me that he loved me, and I thought it was _you_."

"Oh. So did you-." James stopped, rubbing his hands together nervously. "Did you tell him that you felt the same?"

Tony snorted harshly, starting to pace the room. "Does it fucking matter? It-"

"Tony," he said, voice calm and serious, pulling Tony to an abrupt halt before he could even get started.

"Yes! I told him that I loved him, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? The pathetic best friend you've been saddled with since you were eighteen fell in fucking love, and as soon as you get kidnapped he jumped on the chance to make sure you'd be stuck with him for life. Is that better?"

"Tony, why are you expecting me to be mad at you? You keep talking down about yourself like you've been forced on me and I couldn't get rid of you. If that's honestly what you think about me, maybe I _should_ leave. I don't want you to hate me Tones, and sticking around will only make that happen."

"I tell you that I love you, and you're worried about me hating you? I really go for the best ones, don't I."

Rhodey froze. "You love me?"

"Uh I distinctly remember telling you that five seconds ago."

"No no, you said that you told Skrull-me that you loved _him_ , not that you loved me."

"I was only with him because I thought he was you! Fucking christ James, I've been in love with you since I was sixteen, do you really think I managed to fall in love with someone else in a month?"

Feeling light-headed, James took a carefully measured breath. "Oh my god Tony you can't drop that on me all at once."

"What?" Tony asked, frowning in confusion. "Uh, James are you okay? You look a little pale."

"Maybe that's because I thought you hated me and now you're saying that it's the complete opposite."

"Oh uh, do you need a minute?"

"In _your_ room?"

Tony shrugged. It didn't matter to him.

"No it's fine," Rhodey said, scrubbing his hands over his face. "Jesus. Are you serious? You're in love with me?"

"Yeah," he said reluctantly, clearly uncomfortable with having to confirm it.

"Right. So uh." James dropped his hands and looked up at him. "Want to go on a date tonight? You've got that diner you really like, right?"

"Freddie's," Tony supplied. "Did you just ask me on a date?"

"That was the intention. Do you want to?"

Tony looked at him for a minute, so long that Rhodey was actually worried he would say no. "Yeah. That sounds nice."


End file.
